Mummy Dearest

Preserved Bodies, Ancient Practices, and the Mummy in Popular Culture

October 1-31, 2026

What happens to the soul when we die may be open to debate, but what happens to the body is somewhat easier to trace. Mummies are the remains of once-living people and animals preserved either intentionally or by happy accident, from the carefully prepared dead of ancient Egypt to bog bodies, ice mummies and even the occasional unfortunate baby mammoth. They can tell us much about the lives and environments of the formerly living, but their story hardly ends there. Popular culture has given the mummy a remarkably lively afterlife, reanimating the dead in movies, television, comics, toys and video games. Ancient funerary rites and archaeological discoveries become curses, shambling monsters, Halloween costumes and punchlines, while pyramids, hieroglyphs, linen wrappings and long-sealed tombs provide a familiar visual shorthand for mystery and menace. This exhibit explores both sides of the mummy, from remarkably preserved remains to what happens when history, archaeology, superstition and outright invention become entangled.

Curated by Stephen Singer and Abigail Traska.

Buttons for this exhibition available while supplies last.